Seasonal plasticity of thermal tolerance in ants.

Autor: Bujan J; Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, 40292, USA.; Geographical Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA., Roeder KA; Geographical Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA.; Department of Entomology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, 61801, USA., Yanoviak SP; Department of Biology, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, 40292, USA.; Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843, Balboa, Republic of Panama., Kaspari M; Geographical Ecology Group, Department of Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019, USA.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology [Ecology] 2020 Jun; Vol. 101 (6), pp. e03051. Date of Electronic Publication: 2020 Apr 30.
DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3051
Abstrakt: Analyses of heat tolerance in insects often suggest that this trait is relatively invariant, leading to the use of fixed thermal maxima in models predicting future distribution of species in a warming world. Seasonal environments expose populations to a wide annual temperature variation. To evaluate the simplifying assumption of invariant thermal maxima, we quantified heat tolerance of 26 ant species across three seasons that vary two-fold in mean temperature. Our ultimate goal was to test the hypothesis that heat tolerance tracks monthly temperature. Ant foragers tested at the end of the summer, in September, had higher average critical thermal maximum (CT max ) compared to those in March and December. Four out of five seasonal generalists, species actively foraging in all three focal months, had, on average, 6°C higher CT max in September. The invasive fire ant, Solenopsis invicta, was among the thermally plastic species, but the native thermal specialists still maintained higher CT max than S. invicta. Our study shows that heat tolerance can be plastic, and this should be considered when examining species-level adaptations. Moreover, the plasticity of thermal traits, while potentially costly, may also generate a competitive advantage over species with fixed traits and promote resilience to climate change.
(© 2020 by the Ecological Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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